Google the word “raine” and you’ll pull up a maker of nylon military field gear, an arcade emulator and an Estonian architect. But Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, did not have nylon, arcades or Estonians in mind when he put his money in a company of the same name.
Although not obvious from a Google search, the Raine Group is a boutique merchant bank with an investor list that’s a who’s who of digital media moguls. Among them: ex–Facebook president Sean Parker, former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, Demand Media CEO Richard Rosenblatt and Netscape founder Marc Andreessen.
Launched by star media bankers Joe Ravitch and Jeff Sine, late of Goldman Sachs and UBS, respectively, New York–based Raine Group is seeking capital for digital investments that include building up such online businesses as a magazine, a game maker and a shopping network. In a few years search results for “raine” will probably include “media megabank.”
